News Headlines:

Rape Case: Dikshit, Delhi Police at loggerheads

25 Dec 2012, 1234 hrs IST, AGENCIES

After
the blame game, an open war has broken out between Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit, who complained of "interference" by police officers in the recording of
gangrape victim's statement, and Delhi Police which today demanded a probe into
the "leakage" of her letter to the Home
Minister.

Dikshit, who has been
making a strong pitch of bringing the city police under Delhi government from
Home Ministry's control, shot off a letter to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde
seeking a high-level inquiry into the complaint of Sub Divisional
Magistrate.

In the complaint,
sources said, SDM Usha Chaturvedi claimed that three senior police officers had
prevented the video recording of the victim's statement. It was also alleged
that the police officers wanted the SDM to use a questionnaire they prepared.
When she refused to do so, sources said, police officials misbehaved with the
SDM.

Delhi Police came out with
a strong denial and also demanded a high-level probe into the "leakage" of
Dikshit's letter to Home Minister. "We deny the allegations levelled by SDM Usha
Chaturvedi.

"Delhi Police
demands a high-level inquiry into the leakage of a top-secret letter written by
the Chief Minister to the media," Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat
said.

Ever since the public
outrage over the December 16 gangrape of the 23-year-old paramedical student in
a moving bus in south Delhi, the Chief Minister has made it clear that she
cannot be held responsible for actions of police which is not under her
government's control.

Police
has made known its unhappiness over Dikshit passing on the buck and raking up a
"non-issue" at this juncture by writing to Shinde.

In her letter, Dikshit cited a
communication to her by Deputy Commissioner (East) B M Mishra that Chaturvedi
had complained about senior police officials' "interference" while she was
recording the statement of the victim. The Chief Minister was "very upset" over
the contents of the letter sent by the Deputy Commissioner and decided to write
to Shinde seeking a thorough probe into the incident, Delhi government sources
said.

Home Ministry sources
said they are likely to order a probe into the Chief Minister's complaint. "We
are taking the complaint very seriously," a senior Ministry official
said.

Elaborating on police's
stand, Bhagat said the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Vasant Vihar) had
written to Divisional Commissioner seeking the services of a SDM for recording
the statement of the victim and Chaturvedi was assigned the
job.

Doctors treating the
victim at Safdarjung Hospital informed the SDM that she was fit for statement,
he said. "When the SDM arrived there and the camera man was going inside, the
victim's family objected to the presence of the videography team thinking that
they were from media. They were then told about the procedure but the family
then in writing said that they would not like videographing the statement
recording process," Bhagat
said.

As the family objected,
he said, doctors did not allow the video team to record the proceedings.

He also said none of the
police officers were present in the room when the SDM recorded the victim's
statement and that the victim herself signed all the papers in this regard.
"There was no interference from Delhi Police's part," he
said.